Krondor Tear of the Gods

by Raymond E. Feist

  The warrior monk paused to consider, then said, “Tis hard to judge. The daft creatures do not think as you and I think. Perhaps three companies such as this one. One to hold the camp while the other two raid. They numbered chieftains and priests in this party, which is somewhat unusual.”

  “To what end?” asked Kendaric, now sufficiently recovered from his fright to follow the conversation.

  “Ah, that is as plain as can be,” said Solon. “They’ve taken a baby.” He glanced at the sky, where Small Moon was waning. “They’ll sacrifice the wee one in two days when the moon is dark, an offering to their god. So, these aren’t bandits out lookin‘ for plunder. This is an all-out ghost-appeasement raid. Their ancestors are tellin’ them to come down and spill human blood, take human slaves and horses, then come back. Tis a very bad business.”

  Jazhara said, “We must do something. If they’re going to kill the child in two nights, the soldiers will not be here in time.”

  James said, “As loath as I am to think of a child dying in such a fashion, we have more pressing business elsewhere.”

  Jazhara grabbed James by the upper arm and in a low, angry tone, growled, “You’d leave a baby to be butchered like a food animal?”

  James rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I’m not going to win this one, am I?”

  “No. I’ll go alone if I have to.”

  James pulled his arm free of her grip. “You have your duty.”

  “And you’ve already said this may have been done to draw away our soldiers. We will have to wait anyway, James, if you won’t move to Haldon Head before the patrol gets here. If we can rescue the child and return her to her family, we lose only a couple of days, and when the soldiers following us arrive here, they can move straight on to Miller’s Rest.”

  Sighing in resignation, James motioned for Solon and Kendaric to approach. “Solon, could these goblins be working for Bear?”

  “I think not,” said the monk. “Though he could be influencin‘ them. A few weapons or a bit of magic, as gifts, some intelligence on safe places to raid, some jars of wine or ale, they might think plunderin’ down here was their own brilliant idea.”

  Kendaric said, “Is this Bear everywhere?”

  James answered, “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think Bear is behind this. I think he’s working for another.”

  “Why?” asked Jazhara.

  “I’ll tell you as we travel.” He glanced up at the sky. “Dawn will be here in a couple of hours and we have to be ready to ride.”

  “Where are we going?” asked Kendaric.

  With a wry smile, James said, “We’re hunting goblins.”

  Kendaric was complaining, again. “This is not at all wise!”

  James shook his head, ignoring him. To Solon he said, “They’re not taking pains to hide their tracks, are they?”

  The warrior monk was leading his horse as he followed the goblins’ trail. “No, they’re a wee bit damaged, and in a hurry to get back to their healers, I’m thinkin‘.”

  James pointed ahead. In the distance the hills rose and behind them the peaks of the Calastius Mountains. “You think they’ll be up in the rocks?”

  “Almost certainly,” answered the monk. “They’ll have found a defensible position, maybe a box canyon or small meadow, but it’ll be hell to pay to dig them out of it.”

  “And the four of us are going to ‘dig them out?’” demanded Kendaric.

  Running out of patience, James said, “No, we’re not going to dig them out. We’re going to hold the horses and send you in to destroy them.”

  Kendaric stopped his horse, looked down with a stunned expression. “Me?”

  Jazhara couldn’t contain herself and started to laugh. Even the taciturn Solon allowed himself a chuckle.

  James shook his head. “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

  He turned away from Kendaric, who was now falling farther behind, allowing Jazhara to lean over and say, “You have a plan?”

  James whispered back. “No, but I will have by the time we get there and I look around. And maybe he’ll shut up until then.”

  Jazhara smiled and nodded. They rode on.

  At last, Solon signaled a halt. “I’m not a proper tracker, it’s true, but you’d have to be a blind man to not see this.” He dismounted and pointed at the ground where James could see heavy boot-prints in the dirt.

  “He’s in a bit of a hurry, apparently,” said the monk.

  “Who is it?” asked Kendaric.

  “Unless someone here has the gift of future sight,” said Solon, “it’s only guessing, but I suspect we’re lookin‘ at the tracks of that farmer, come to fetch home his bonny girl.”

  “Good guess,” said James, pointing ahead. In the distance they saw a solitary figure cresting a hill. He had been hidden from sight by a closer rise, but now they could see him marching purposefully down the trail. “We’d best catch up with him before he gets himself killed.”

  Solon mounted and they urged their horses into a fast canter. They overtook the farmer quickly. The man turned and regarded the riders with suspicion. He held a scythe like a weapon, across his chest, ready to block or swing.

  “Hold,” said James with his right hand held up palm outward. “We’re on the Prince’s business.”

  “Finally! I was beginning to think help would never come. How is my wife?”

  James said, “I believe you’ve mistaken us for others.”

  The farmer asked, “What?! You mean Becky didn’t send you from Krondor? I thought you had come to rescue my daughter!”

  Solon said, “Be calm, Farmer Toth. You are in Ishap’s grace now. We know something about your child. Please, tell us what happened to your daughter.”

  The man seemed to relax. “It’s been almost a week, now since my friend Lane and I were out hunting. We were in the foothills east of here, when at night we heard flutes and drums.

  “We went to see what it was, and in a canyon not too far from here we came upon a band of goblins. They had a little boy, and then they . . . oh, gods . . . they cut the child in two. Sacrificed him! I cried out. . . I couldn’t help myself, and they came after us. We managed to escape, but then the day before yesterday they fell upon us back at my farm. Lane and I tried to hold them back, but there were just too many. They got into the house . . . and they took my daughter! Lane’s a tracker and went after them, and I sent my wife Becky to Krondor for help and then followed after Lane. Now you’ve shown up.”

  James asked, “Which way did Lane go?”

  “Back to the canyon, I’m almost certain. He left small sign for me to follow. I was going to wait for the soldiers . . . but I couldn’t bear the thought of them sacrificing my little girl.”

  “She’s safe until the dark of the next moon,” said Solon.

  “It was the dark of the Middle Moon the night we saw the boy killed,” agreed Toth. Then he became concerned. “Tomorrow night is the dark of the Small Moon!”

  “We must act quickly,” said Jazhara.

  “It’s all that witch’s doing,” said Toth.

  “Witch?” asked Jazhara.

  “There are rumors of witchcraft up at Haldon Head -that accursed witch must have had my daughter stolen for her foul spells!”

  Jazhara’s eyes narrowed. “Did you see the ‘witch’ when the goblins killed the little boy?”

  “Well, no, but. . .”

  “It is of no matter now,” injected Solon. “If we are to help, we must move quickly.”

  “I beg you do!” said Toth. “Please help me find my daughter.”

  Solon glanced around. “Camp here, good farmer. We shall have to strike this night, else the bonny child is lost.”

  James nodded. “Let’s get moving.”

  They led their horses along the road while the farmer looked around for a place to wait. James glanced back and saw the man’s face. Clearly all his hopes rode with them.

  “Looks like Toth’s friend Lane ran into some trouble,” sai
d James. A short way down the trail they had followed for the last hour lay a small mound of corpses. Beyond that another pair of goblins lay across a still, human form.

  “He made the bastards pay,” growled Solon.

  Kendaric said, “But at what price? The man is dead!”

  “Calm yourself,” said Jazhara.

  “Calm, she says,” Kendaric muttered, shaking his head.

  “I think that body just moved,” said James, jumping from his horse and hurrying over. He pulled the two goblins off the pile and examined the man. “Bring water!” he instructed.

  Jazhara hurried over with a waterskin while James cradled the man’s head, watching as the magician poured a little water onto the man’s face, reviving him.

  Blinking, Lane said, “Goblins . . . they took my friend’s daughter. I found their camp, but. . . there were too many . . .”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find them,” said Jazhara.

  “They’re close. The box canyon, north of here. Please. Don’t let them kill that little girl.”

  James started to ask a question, but Lane’s eyes rolled up into his head. James put his ear near the man’s mouth and after a minute, said, “He’s gone.”

  Solon said, “He’ll not die in vain. We’ll see justice done.”

  James gently rested the man’s head on the rocks, and stood. Glancing upward, he said, “It’s going to be dark in less than two hours. Let’s see if we can find that box canyon.” He motioned for Solon and Kendaric to dismount. “We’ll walk the horses and leave them at the mouth of the canyon. When we return, we’ll give Lane a proper burial.”

  It took them less than an hour to reach the entrance to the canyon. A small stream emptied out of the rocks there, cutting across the trail, before splashing down the hillside. Turning to Kendaric, James said, “Water the horses and keep them from wandering off. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  “You’re leaving me here alone?” he asked, alarmed.

  “Well, if you’d rather go to the goblin camp . . . ?”

  “No! It’s just, well, alone . . .”

  James said, “As much as it pains me to say this, right now you are more important than either Jazhara or myself.” He thought about it, then added, “Solon, you stay here as well. If we don’t come back, go to Miller’s Rest and pick up the patrol. Then go to Haldon Head, raise the ship and get the Tear.”

  Solon seemed to be on the verge of objecting, then saw the wisdom of the plan. “Aye, I’ll wait.”

  James and Jazhara moved up the canyon. After carefully picking their way through the narrow opening, they came to a quarter turn, bending to the left. James peeked around the corner. Then he turned and held up two ringers to Jazhara, and mouthed, “Two guards.” She nodded. He glanced up at the rim of the canyon and pointed to a spot slightly behind Jazhara.

  Following his gaze, she saw a handhold, and nodded quick agreement. Shouldering her staff across her back, she climbed nimbly up onto the ridge. James followed. At the top he whispered in her ear, “I’m going to move up the draw a bit and see what’s there. If there’s a way to get past the guards, I’ll find it. If not, we’ll try the other side.”

  “What if there is no way on the other side?” she whispered back.

  “Then we have to kill the guards and move quickly before we’re discovered.”

  Jazhara’s face revealed her reaction to that possibility. “Please find another way,” she asked.

  James crept along the rim of the canyon, keeping low to reduce the chance of being seen against the still-light sky. He passed the bend and glanced down to make sure he wasn’t likely to be spotted by the guard stationed at the opposite side of the canyon, but to his relief the guard was nowhere to be seen.

  James continued his slow approach. The rise increased in height as he reached the lip of the box canyon. Below he could see a dozen tents, dominated by a huge one capable of housing at least a dozen warriors. He sat back on his haunches for a moment and weighed his concerns. The tents were of human origin. Goblins built huts from sticks and branches in their own villages, or stayed in caves or under lean-tos when out foraging or hunting.

  Then James saw a human. So: human renegades were behind the goblin raids! He half-expected the man to be wearing the black of the Nighthawks, and was almost disappointed when he approached the fire and revealed himself to be a simple mercenary. James gave that some thought: mercenaries and goblins. It seemed that Bear must be involved in the goblin raids - or whoever was behind Bear . . .

  Which left James with a problem to consider at some other time, since right now he needed to focus on rescuing the child.

  The mercenary kicked a goblin who grudgingly moved aside so that the human could take out a knife and cut a hunk of meat off a quarter bullock that was roasting on a spit. The man deftly impaled the meat with his dagger, tore off a piece, and turned away from the circle of goblins around the fire. James watched him chew the savory beef.

  Then he heard the baby crying. An influx of emotion he hadn’t expected accompanied the realization that the child still lived, filling him with relief and a redoubled sense of urgency. James’s eyes glanced here and there, his gaze traveling around the camp. The old thief in him spied a course along the canyon rim that would put him above the big tent in which the child lay.

  James glanced at the camp below. A couple of goblins sported wounds, obviously from their aborted raid on the Wayfarer the night before. How to get in and out without being detected? James wondered.

  He looked up at the sky and judged it about three hours before the waning Small Moon rose. Middle Moon was a quarter full, and was now high in the sky. It would set as Small Moon rose. Large Moon was also waning, and would rise an hour after Small Moon.

  James calculated. That gave him roughly an hour of relatively deep darkness in which to infiltrate the camp, steal the baby, and return to where Solon and Kendaric waited. As loath as he was to risk passing by the guards three more times, he knew he had to return to Jazhara and discuss his plan with her; he would need her help.

  Moving slowly he passed the bend and reached the point above Jazhara. Softly, he whispered her name and from below heard her answer, “Here.”

  He jumped down.

  “What did you find?” Jazhara asked.

  “The baby lives and I think I can get to her, but I need to know if you have anything that we can use to keep her quiet. I will almost certainly be discovered if she cries out.”

  Jazhara said, “I can make something; how much time do we have?”

  “I must be back above the tent within the hour.”

  “Then I have little time. I’ll need a small fire and my things are on my horse.”

  James motioned her to follow. “Quietly,” he said. He led her back down the canyon to where Solon and Kendaric waited. At once, Kendaric started to ask questions, but James waved them away. “The child lives and I’ll fetch her out, but right now I need a fire.”

  Solon didn’t hesitate. Instantly he started casting around for small branches and twigs. Jazhara took her pack down from her horse, and sat down on the ground, swinging the pack around before her as she did so. She quickly removed several vials, a small copper vessel, and a pair of thin cloth gloves. While she worked, she said, “Getting the child to drink anything could be difficult and she might cry out in the attempt. I can make a potion that will cause the baby to sleep deeply for a few hours if you can get her to breathe it in. A bit on a cloth, held over her nose and mouth for a few moments, will suffice. Be careful, though, not to breathe the fumes yourself, even at a distance. While it might not put you to sleep, it can disorient you and make it difficult for you to return.”

  “Get you killed, is what she means,” said Kendaric.

  Solon said, “Laddie, has anyone ever previously mentioned that at times you possess the charm of a canker on the buttock?”

  James chuckled, but Jazhara was all concentration as she poured tiny amounts of liquid and powders from the fi
ve vials she had chosen. She added a few drops of water and then with an incantation placed the vessel dose to the tiny fire Solon had started.

  Pulling an empty vial from her bag, she removed the stopper and deftly picked up the copper vessel, holding it gingerly with two gloved fingers. Quickly she poured the contents into the vial, then replaced the stopper.

  She handed the vial to James, saying, “Carefully.” Then she rummaged around in her pack. At last she held something out to him. “Here is a clean cloth. Just before you attempt to touch the child, pour a little of the liquid on the cloth, and hold it above the baby’s face. A few moments is all it should take. She will not rouse, even if you jostle her or there are loud noises.”

  “Thank you,” James said. “If there’s loud noises, it doesn’t matter if she wakes or not.” He glanced at the sky. “I must hurry. Wait here and have the horses ready for a very fast retreat if I come running.” Then he thought a bit more and said, “Have the horses ready for a very fast retreat no matter what.”

  “At last a wise suggestion,” Kendaric said as he grinned.

  James unbuckled his sword-belt, knowing that should he have need of his blade he and the child would most likely be facing death, anyway. He checked his dagger and placed it firmly in its sheath. Tucking the vial and cloth inside his shirt, he turned and hurried back toward the entrance of the canyon.

  He made his way quickly along the ridge and this time continued until he was above the tent. Middle Moon had sunk in the west, and Small Moon and Large Moon were going to rise soon. The fire had burned low in the center of the camp and several goblins lay sleeping on the ground near it. From within several tents, the sound of snoring told James the entire camp had turned in for the night, save for whatever guards were on patrol. He prayed quickly to Ruthia, Goddess of Luck and of thieves, that the goblins and renegades weren’t smart enough to have set someone to patrolling the rim. He positioned himself above the largest tent and looked around. Then he began his careful descent.